Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 2012: Avelis and Mekharis

Ning folded his arms and looked at the strange form Crownus had taken. "When we started, you still looked human. Now half the galaxy apparently imagines you as something to be afraid of. I’d like to know what managed to change things that badly."

Crownus remained quiet for a moment before answering.

"I caused it."

Ning’s eyebrows rose.

"Accidentally," Crownus added.

"I would hope so. So far as I know, you cannot directly cause any deaths."

Crownus did not react to the comment.

Ning sighed. "Please explain."

Crownus began with the second world Ning had visited.

The planet was called Avelis, the human world where Crownus had created the Heavenly Records. When Ning had first visited it, Avelis had possessed a developed civilization but had still been limited mostly to its own world. The Heavenly Records had shaped nearly every part of that civilization for generations, assigning Callings and providing knowledge that allowed people to advance far more quickly than they otherwise would have.

During the hundred and thirty thousand years Crownus had spent studying Ning, that advancement had continued.

Eventually, Avelis reached space.

Then it went much farther.

"Their early expansion was slow," Crownus explained. "They colonized nearby moons first, followed by neighboring planets and artificial habitats. The Heavenly Records continued functioning for anyone descended from the people of Avelis, regardless of where they traveled."

Ning narrowed his eyes. "Did the Heavenly Records travel with them?" he asked.

Crownus nodded. "I had it assigned to the people who were born in that world, and not the world itself. So when they left for another world, they brought with them the knowledge of the Heavenly Records. And anyone who could find their way to Avelis gained a Calling. So, Callings became rather important."

"That’s... unexpected, surely," Ning said, looking toward the goat face.

"Of course."

"How did they overcome space travel?" Ning asked. "Did they find wormholes? So far as I was aware, there wasn’t any special Energy they could use."

"Space stones. They found a deposit of them on one of their moons. There’s so much of it that they are still using it to this day."

Ning raised an eyebrow. "A Space stone deposit? Yeah, that would do it."

Crownus continued. He explained how his simple experiment for a System had turned out to be far more important than he had initially intended.

People who left Avelis still awakened between sixteen and eighteen. They still received Callings, and they still gained knowledge and skills that ordinary civilizations would have needed years of formal education to reproduce.

As the human population spread, Avelis itself became increasingly important.

People began returning to the planet deliberately.

Some came because they believed the Heavenly Records functioned more clearly near its origin, even though Crownus said that belief was mostly superstition. Others came to study old institutions built around Callings, seek specialized teachers, or participate in traditions that had developed over tens of thousands of years.

Eventually, Avelis became more than the birthplace of one civilization.

It became a center of human culture throughout that part of the galaxy.

"People traveled there from colonies separated by thousands of light-years," Crownus said. "Many believed receiving or developing a Calling on Avelis carried greater prestige."

Ning smiled faintly. "Of course they did."

Give people enough time and they could turn nearly anything into status.

Crownus continued.

Human expansion eventually reached the territory surrounding Mekharis, which was the world Ning had visited first.

That was the planet inhabited by the sentient machines.

The beings Crownus had created by accident had changed just as dramatically over the same period. What had begun as Souls temporarily contained within microscopic machines had grown into an entire civilization of sophisticated machines. By the time Ning saw them diverting the asteroid, they had already possessed enough technology to protect their planet without Crownus’s help.

Over the following millennia, they had advanced much further.

"They began exploring beyond Mekharis approximately forty thousand years after the humans of Avelis did," Crownus said. "Their expansion was slower at first because they had different resource requirements, but their ability to survive in hostile environments gave them other advantages."

Ning could easily imagine that.

A biological civilization needed breathable air, food, controlled temperatures, and protection from radiation. Machines capable of housing Souls had much wider options.

"They could colonize worlds humans couldn’t and spread farther than anyone else. And eventually, they ran into each other."

Ning expected the story to become unpleasant around there, but Crownus surprised him.

"The first contact was peaceful."

"Actually peaceful?"

"Very."

Explorers from Avelis had encountered a Mekharan survey vessel near an uninhabited star system. Neither side knew what the other was at first, and the differences between them were enormous, but neither had any immediate reason to be hostile.

The humans were fascinated by an intelligent mechanical species.

The Mekharans were equally interested in biological beings who had managed to spread so far across the galaxy.

Trade began within a few decades, and formal relations followed. By the standards of civilizations meeting for the first time, things had gone remarkably well.

"What ruined that?" Ning asked.

The problem began when the first Mekharans traveled to Avelis.

Because Avelis had become such an important center of human civilization, visiting it was politically significant. Scholars wanted to study the Heavenly Records, diplomats wanted access to human institutions, and many Mekharans were simply curious about the strange System that had influenced human history for so long.

That was when Crownus’s old experiment created a problem he had never anticipated.

"The Heavenly Records did not recognize them," Crownus said.

Ning’s expression changed. The answer made sense once he thought about it.

Crownus had created the Heavenly Records for humans.

Every human born on Avelis had been connected to it, and later generations remained within the structure even as they spread beyond the planet. The System had been built around biological humanity from the beginning.

The people of Mekharis were never taken into consideration.

To the Heavenly Records, they were machines containing Souls. Nothing more. So, for the humans to whom the Heavenly Records meant everything, the Mekharans immediately came to be viewed in a negative light.

They were no longer considered people.